Friends brand new PCS PC crashing on Warzone

[starkey7]

Hi,

I have a PCS PC PCSPECIALIST Vortex ST-S Gaming PC - Intel® Core™ i7, RTX 3070, 2 TB HDD & 512 GB SSD and have had this since October last year, no issues at all and set this up with various windows tweaks for gaming - nothing too technical just stopping programmes running in the background etc, game mode turned on, performance set to high and various changes to the NVidia graphics card control panel.

My friend purchased the same PC this week and it arrived yesterday - he updated windows and downloaded Warzone last night. I ran him through some windows changes as above. He was struggling to access NVidia control panel, he had his display port placed in the wrong port at the back of the PC so we changed that around. It then recognised the graphics card but again struggled to access the control panel. We ended up enabling a download from windows store (eventually as it was freezing on the download) to access the graphics card. As Warzone runs better on a older driver for the graphics card I sent him the link for the 472.12 driver and we used DDU to completely remove his graphics card drivers and installed the 472.12 graphics driver. We made changes to the graphics card via the control panel (mimic'd what i have) loaded up Warzone and the game still froze when loading in. The PC itself isn't freezing it is just the game completely which requires a restart and he is unable to play.

I have noticed his graphics card is slightly different being a Geforce Gigabyte 3070 where as mine is a Zotac Gaming Geforce 3070 but i wouldn't expect that to make much a of a difference on anything? unless anyone can advise?

I made a restore point initially, so i am going to try and restore the PC back, update any windows updates, update any drivers on a whole and then update the Nvidia graphics card to the latest driver firstly. From there i am going to try and run Warzone just to see if it works at all and that will be my baseline before any changes. Just wondering if anyone can advise on any additional actions i need to complete, especially with it being a new PC, although i don't recall doing much to mine when it was brand new.

Any advice or instructions is appreciated - I am not the most technical with background PC stuff but can definitely follow any advice provided.


the specs for his new PC are below as purchased from Curry's:

Technical specifications for PCSPECIALIST Vortex ST-S Gaming PC - Intel® Core™ i7, RTX 3070, 2 TB HDD & 512 GB SSD​

Overview​

Type
Gaming PC
Operating system
Windows 10

Performance​

Graphics card
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
- 8 GB GDDR6
RAM
- 16 GB DDR4 (3200 MHz)
- 128 GB maximum installable RAM
Processor
- Intel® Core™ i7-11700 Processor
- Octa-core
- 2.5 GHz / 4.9 GHz
- 16 MB cache
Storage
- 2 TB HDD (7200 rpm)
- 512 GB SSD
Motherboard
B560 chipset

Connectivity​

WiFi
- WiFi 6
- 2x2
- Up to 300 Mbps
Ethernet
Gigabit Ethernet port
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.0
USB
- USB Type-C x 1
- USB 3.0 x 2
- USB 2.0 x 4
Video connections
- HDMI x 1
- DisplayPort x 1
- DVI x 1
Audio connections
3.5 mm jack

Media​

Disc drive
No
Memory card reader
No

Features​

Keyboard
No
Mouse / trackpad
No

Sound​

Audio software
Realtek 8-Channel High Definition Audio

General​

Colour
Black
Weight
10 kg
Software
* Full version of Microsoft Office not included
* Full version of anti-virus / internet security not included

- Office 365 (30 day trial)
- BullGuard Internet Security (90 day trial)
Dimensions
450 x 210 x 418 mm (H x W x D)
Manufacturer’s guarantee
1 year
Box contents
- PCSpecialist Vortex ST-S Gaming PC (PCS-D2027769)
- Power lead

many thanks in advance, it is appreciated

 

[Aza]

By the looks of it, this is from PCWorld or similar...
I'd suggest registering it with PCS (this website is not PCS btw, you need to go to their actual website as they arent on here frequently, mods are volunteers).

Id also recommend stripping out anything like bullguard/norton antivirus.
Then i'd turn it off and reseat the GPU and RAM just to make sure its in properly and not wobbled loose at all.
Check all windows updates are on, over several reboots, and when it all looks clear reboot again and check to make sure. I would then also update GPU drivers direct from the manufacturers site, geforce experience can cause problems but if you want it thats not a massive issue, but would avoid the audio codec (youll need to click custom install, not express).
It may also be an idea to check chipset drivers, AMD have a tool for it, i'd imagine Intel is the same.

Get something like Prime95 and HWMonitor and run these to stress test the system and monitor whats going on.

If thats still having problems, ensure you have logged onto microsoft online and gone to your account page so the licence is digitally associated, download media tool and do a fresh, clean install.

 

[ThoRob]

What cooler are they using? That system is going to be generating a lot of heat.
What does HW Monitor say when its running under load?

 

[Aza]

All this "games mode" stuff and bullguard etc is basically bloat ware, it doesnt do anything to actually benefit and it takes up resources, and can cause conflicts in the system....added to the fact places like PCWorld never give you full specs either it really doesnt help.

 

[starkey7]

Hi all, i am not familiar with HWmonitor but will look into it and try to run to see what issues it is presenting. I would have expected for a brand new PC and a 3070 graphics card to run games with ease, just as i do with the same spec PC. Just can't put my finger on why it is crashing on the game all the time. I am not really confident with removing or re seating any RAM/GPU within a PC but will double check to ensure they are fixed correctly.

I think the issue would be around windows updates and driver updates but will keep you all updated. it's just frustrating that it is a brand new PC and we are having issues - especially as it is the same spec as mine and i run everything with ease.

thanks for your help

 

[Aza]

HWMonitor givves you readouts from your system, its free (there is a pro version that does a free trial but you dont need that).
It will give you temps, voltages, fan speeds etc.

Prime95 is another free bit of kit, and stress tests your CPU, run Prime for about 10 minutes, leave it running, and take screen shots of what HWMonitor is showing you, that way you will see what its like under full load and run-in properly.

You can also get stuff like 3DMark which will bench mark your system, that can tell you if teh GPU is at least working but doesnt really run long enough to stress test, without buying full versions. Prime should be enough to check tbh.

Id also check the exact model of GPU you have and see if theres software thats meant to run with it, such as Firestorm with some Zotac 2000 models... you should be able to see what GPU you have in there and i'd check the manufacturers site to see what support/downloads there are.

 

[starkey7]

Hi all, we have re installed windows, updated graphics card to the most recent driver, re installed Warzone and we are still having issues with crashing. We are unable to play any games, for a brand new PC i am unsure why i would need to run stress tests and additional bits but would welcome any support on this.

I have been trying this all day now with no joy - i have seen advice on updating motherboard through BIOS and voltage configuretion but before i get into that what is everyones thoughts? Should the PC just be returned and replaced?

Many thanks

 

[ThoRob]

One of the experts may be able to give more advice but that is not a very powerful cooler and both the 11 series i7 and the RTX 3070 give off a lot of heat. I also looks like you have the Corsair 175R Mid Tower Case which I have no experience of but it looks like a bit of an oven with a smallish case and only one fan.
I suggest downloading the free versions of 3D Mark and HWMoinitor. Run both at the same time and take a screenshot of HWMonitor temp readings after ~5min of 3D Mark running.

 

[starkey7]

I completed the Prime95 and monitoring software, after approx 10 mins temps capped at 78 degrees on and just lower on the cores. Everything else seemed fine and no major issues highlighted? Is there any specific stuff i need to focus on? I am unable to upload any pictures of the data unfortunately. However, i updated the motherboard from gigabyte website to a lower spec (F10 update) the one i had in had F11 but was taken off the gigabyte website and you cannot get F11 anymore. Wonder if there was potential issues with it?

We updated it to the F10 (older update for it) through BIOS and fingers crossed everything seems fine, we have played 6/7 games and no crash and running smooth. Going to start to make minor changes to windows and the nvidia control panel and see how it performs. I am hoping we have resolved this now and it was a bad update for the motherboard.

Thanks for everyones help and i will keep you updated! Is this normal to expect to complete for a brand new PC?

 

[Scott]

If he has just bought it I would genuinely suggest he take it back for a full refund and post up for some advice on a custom build. The pre-configured PCS systems from the likes of Currys etc are very poorly configured IMO, they are not what we would recommend as well rounded/configured PCs. For very similar money he could have a far better system overall.

It would at least involve a current line of CPU. The 11 series is awful value by comparison and paired with that cooler is just asking for trouble. I believe it has one of the lesser performing cases as well.